Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,530 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 81 of 153).

Mental Floss Exclusive: Our Interview with Bill Watterson!

The magazine Mental Floss has a rare interview with Bill Watterson. Though Calvin and Hobbes long ago disappeared from the newspapers I felt compelled to read the whole article.

His answer to this question made me sad:

According to your collection introductions, you took up painting after the strip ended. Why don’t you exhibit the work?

My first problem is that I don’t paint ambitiously. It’s all catch and release—just tiny fish that aren’t really worth the trouble to clean and cook. But yes, my second problem is that Calvin and Hobbes created a level of attention and expectation that I don’t know how to process.

Bill Watterson’s earned the right to do whatever the hell he wants to do. He’s a fantastic artist and he’s worried about attention and expectation?

Dude, just do your thing. Please just do your thing. You don’t have to outdo Calvin and Hobbes, just let your new work take you wherever it may. I know I would love to see your new work and I know many others would, too. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone anymore, and yet the artist who held such high standards for his craft is probably a prisoner to those high standards.

I’m sad that the world will miss out on Watterson’s continuing creativity.

via Mental Floss Exclusive: Our Interview with Bill Watterson! | Mental Floss.

911 slowly gets smart phone-savvy

My friend Tarus thought that using smartphones to summon emergency services would be a good idea. AT&T apparently thinks otherwise (hint: follow the money).

Durham County is among a handful of emergency dispatch centers in the state that will soon be capable of receiving 911 emergency calls as text messages or streaming video.

Dispatchers across the state are updating their local emergency networks to be compatible with smart phones, but there’s no guarantee that the public will be able to send text or images to 911 dispatch centers anytime soon.

via 911 slowly gets smart phone-savvy | Technology | NewsObserver.com.

Your D-Link router may have a backdoor

Another example that if you don’t own the source code to your software, you can’t be fully sure what it does.

A curious computer security professional published findings Saturday that deconstructed the firmware code for some D-Link router devices and discovered a backdoor built directly into the code. By changing the user-agent in a web browser to “xmlset_roodkcableoj28840ybtide,” a user could bypass the security on the device and get online or control the higher functions of the router.

via Your D-Link router may have a backdoor | The Raw Story.

Why Android SSL was downgraded from AES256-SHA to RC4-MD5 in late 2010

An Android developer has uncovered convincing evidence that Google inexplicably and deliberately dumbed-down Android’s SSL security.

“The change from the strong OpenSSL cipher list to a hardcoded one starting with weak ciphers is either a sign of horrible ignorance, security incompetence or a clever disguise for an NSA-influenced manipulation – you decide!”

Android is using the combination of horribly broken RC4 and MD5 as the first default cipher on all SSL connections. This impacts all apps that did not care enough to change the list of enabled ciphers (i.e. almost all existing apps). This post investigates why RC4-MD5 is the default cipher, and why it replaced better ciphers which were in use prior to the Android 2.3 release in December 2010.

via Why Android SSL was downgraded from AES256-SHA to RC4-MD5 in late 2010.

Waking Up Tired? Blame Electricity

Fascinating.

Our internal clocks are drifting out of sync, and indoor lighting may be to blame. A new study suggests that just a few days in the great outdoors puts us back in tune with the solar cycle, and reconnecting with the sun could make us less drowsy.

Electricity has given us the freedom to choose our bedtimes; staying up after dark is as easy as flipping a light switch. But we pay a price for this luxury, says integrative physiologist Kenneth Wright of the University of Colorado, Boulder, who led the new study. People with later bedtimes and wake times are exposed to more artificial light and less sunlight, he says, which means their bodies aren’t getting the natural cues humans once relied on.

via Waking Up Tired? Blame Electricity | Science/AAAS | News.

BBC News – Nuclear fusion milestone passed at US lab

We’re getting closer to nuclear fusion energy!

Researchers at a US lab have passed a crucial milestone on the way to their ultimate goal of achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion.

Harnessing fusion – the process that powers the Sun – could provide an unlimited and cheap source of energy.

But to be viable, fusion power plants would have to produce more energy than they consume, which has proven elusive. Now, a breakthrough by scientists at the National Ignition Facility NIF could boost hopes of scaling up fusion.

NIF, based at Livermore in California, uses 192 beams from the world’s most powerful laser to heat and compress a small pellet of hydrogen fuel to the point where nuclear fusion reactions take place.

The BBC understands that during an experiment in late September, the amount of energy released through the fusion reaction exceeded the amount of energy being absorbed by the fuel – the first time this had been achieved at any fusion facility in the world.

via BBC News – Nuclear fusion milestone passed at US lab.

On letters from climate-change deniers – latimes.com

And those scientists have provided ample evidence that human activity is indeed linked to climate change. Just last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — a body made up of the world’s top climate scientists — said it was 95% certain that we fossil-fuel-burning humans are driving global warming. The debate right now isn’t whether this evidence exists clearly, it does but what this evidence means for us.

Simply put, I do my best to keep errors of fact off the letters page; when one does run, a correction is published. Saying “there’s no sign humans have caused climate change” is not stating an opinion, it’s asserting a factual inaccuracy.

via On letters from climate-change deniers – latimes.com.

NSA’s $2B Spy Center is Going Up in Flames

Whoopsie.

The National Security Agency’s $2 billion mega spy center is going up in flames.Technical glitches have sparked fiery explosions within the NSA’s newest and largest data storage facility in Utah, destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and delaying the facility’s opening by one year.And no one seems to know how to fix it.

Within the last 13 months, at least 10 electric surges have each cost about $100,000 in damages, according to documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal. Experts agree that the system, which requires about 64 megawatts of electricity—that’s about a $1 million a month energy bill–isn’t able to run all of its computers and servers while keeping them cool, which is likely triggering the meltdowns.

via $2 Billion NSA Spy Center is Going Up in Flames | The Fiscal Times.

Raleigh ‘Color Run’ race leads to dyed houses, towed cars

Looks like Colin Campbell at the N&O has picked up on the Color Run story.

By the way, I’m up to 16,045 page views now. Word has really gotten around.

Residents of the historic Oakwood neighborhood are fuming after a recent “color run” left brightly colored powder on houses, and some people’s cars were towed from outside their homes.

The Color Run is a for-profit 5k race where runners are doused with dyed starches along the route. They are held in dozens of cities across the country each year, billing themselves as “a race that celebrates healthiness, happiness and individuality.”

via RALEIGH: Raleigh 'Color Run' race leads to dyed houses, towed cars | Wake County | NewsObserver.com.

Residents seeing red after Raleigh ‘Color Run’ | abc11.com

Ed Crump with WTVD just ran a story on Raleigh’s Color Run fiasco (and nice headline, Ed. Sounds kinda familiar …)

RALEIGH (WTVD) — Some residents of historic Oakwood in downtown Raleigh say they are annoyed by the noise and mess left from last weekend’s “Color Run.”

Runners and volunteers played loud music and threw colored powder as part of the 5K event at Halifax Mall on Sept. 28.

However, some residents said they were really upset when their cars were towed off the street with less than 24-hours notice.

via Residents seeing red after Raleigh 'Color Run' | abc11.com.